About three dozen San Francisco City College students, angry at police and the administration's handling of a recent campus protest, staged a vigil Thursday outside Conlan Hall, where police had used pepper spray, wielded batons, and arrested two students a week earlier.

Thursday's demonstration was markedly less intense. Officers were nowhere in sight as students gave speeches and denounced the police actions and the administration's response they said blamed students for the violence.

Among the speakers at the vigil was Otto Pippenger, 20, a City College student wearing a brace on each of his wrists and sporting a black eye. Pippenger said he was injured at the March 13 protest and has retained a lawyer, but he wouldn't say exactly what happened.

Pippenger was one of the two students arrested at that incident after demonstrators stormed Conlan Hall, the administrative building at the college's main Ocean Avenue campus. The students protested a new policy that requires students to pay fees up front, and called for the resignation of the state-appointed special trustee charged with keeping the college from losing its accreditation.

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Building shut down

Campus leaders called in San Francisco police officers to keep students out of the administrative building.

Video of the incident shows police pushing students and swinging batons.

Students and their supporters complained of police brutality and scheduled Thursday's demonstration in response. But they were further angered when Chancellor Arthur Tyler announced that he would shut down Conlan Hall an hour before the protest to "ensure the safety of all staff and students."

After the afternoon vigil, the group walked to a meeting of a college advisory board made up of students, faculty and staff. There, Tyler spoke about his proposal to create a task force on "civil discourse" at the college.

The chancellor said he plans to hire an outside expert to review what happened at the March 13 demonstration.

But Míchaél Madden, 22, a student who helped organize the protests, questioned whether Tyler was serious about an objective review because the chancellor appeared to blame students when he issued a statement saying he was "saddened to see students engaging in violent outbursts."

"That's a false accusation," Madden said earlier, noting that San Francisco prosecutors declined this week to file charges against the two students.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Tyler said he was not entirely sure what transpired at the protest, saying video of the incident is "incomplete." But he said protesters stationed inside the building created "an opportunity for people outside to breach the police line."

'Didn't just happen'

That lack of information is why Tyler wants an external review, he told the advisory board, repeating that he was saddened by last week's events.

"Six police officers were injured - that didn't just happen," Tyler said before the meeting, adding that some of the protesters were not City College students. "There had to be some violence to create those injuries, but I want to know what happened on both sides so we can take appropriate actions going forward."

Things have been tense at City College since July, when the state Board of Governors for community colleges ousted the seven elected members of the Board of Trustees and replaced them with Robert Agrella, the special trustee, to hasten the college's ability to comply with accrediting standards.